Women in Science Q&A Series: Dr. Naoko Kozuki
From well-known names like Marie Curie and her Nobel Prizes to less known scientists like Alice Augusta Ball – a chemist who cured leprosy – women have been leading ground-breaking research for centuries.
Despite the tremendous contribution women have made, the science and technology field remains largely male-dominated – today only 33% of researchers are women and just 30% of professionals in the sciences in Sub-Saharan Africa are women. This gap is even greater among senior researchers and those in decision-making positions.
More must be done to cultivate future generations of women in research. The world needs science, and science needs women and girls.
In honor of International Day of Women and Girls in Science – February 11 – EQUAL is kicking off a special Q&A series with the women researchers represented in our consortium. Together, we will get to know the challenges they’ve faced, their triumphs, and advice they give to young women considering a career in science.
To launch the series, we are joined by Dr. Naoko Kozuki, the Research and Innovation Lead for Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, and Neonatal Health at the International Rescue Committee and co-Research Director for EQUAL (full bio below).
1. Dr. Kozuki, you’ve had an impressive career doing research on maternal and newborn health and child malnutrition in contexts including in Nepal, Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan. What led you to a career in public health research?
I first became interested in public health after completing an internship at China’s first voluntary drug rehabilitation center located in Southwest China. I originally took the internship because I was studying the Chinese language but through that experience, I worked with individuals who had overcome drug addiction and were subsequently sharing their knowledge and experience with those still battling addiction. I started to think about public health and different approaches for preventing people from getting sick to begin with – it seemed like a no-brainer to prioritize prevention first and yet so often I only heard about treatment. This piqued my interest.
A few years later, when I was in graduate school studying public health, I had the great fortune of having incredible mentors, including a female advisor. My mentors had led seminal research studies that had completely altered how we care for mothers and newborns and children in developing contexts, such as a landmark study on the use of chlorohexidine on the umbilical cord to reduce neonatal mortality and a vitamin A supplementation trial demonstrating significant reduction in child mortality.
I found it incredibly appealing that by asking the right questions and conducting research rigorously, you can produce evidence that has lifesaving implication on the most vulnerable populations and at the global level.
2. In your experience, why is it so important to have gender diverse research teams?
When I started doing research in the maternal and newborn health space, I was struck by the fact that even in a topic that distinctly affects women, the majority of the researchers were male. This is the case in most areas of general science, but I was still startled that the gender composition of research teams looking at pregnancy and childbirth were no different.
That has changed over time, but I do think women have a shared lived experience – whether they are a mother or not – and that adds value to the research we are doing, especially for studies on maternal and newborn health. Having women conducting the research can make the experience more intimate and comfortable for the women in communities we are working with – that can be critical for meaningful research.
By creating research teams with diverse experiences and diverse perspectives – both men and women – we are able to do better, high-quality research that is sensitive to the needs of our clients.
3. In your opinion, what is the state of gender balance in research?
This obviously depends on the field of research and the country you are talking about. 80% of public health graduates from my alma mater, for example, are women, whereas we know the rates for female graduates from universities in Sub-Saharan Africa are much lower. The same can be said for other sciences like technology and engineering which remain male-dominated in most places.
Within the public health field, there has been a lot more attention in recent years to gender balance. While this may be a superficial demonstration, we hear a lot of conferences and events with no “manel” rules – no panels that consist only of men. We are seeing more vocal advocacy for female representation in science, research, and other professional arenas. That’s an important step and we should be calling for more female representation, but it needs to also accompany an intersectional lens. You may say no “manel” but then a panel about research in the Global South is made up entirely of people from the Global North. It can’t just be about gender – it’s also about making sure women from the Global South, and those with other underrepresented identities, have opportunities for growth in science and research. That’s a critical thing for Global North researchers to keep in mind.
4. You’ve noted that progress has been made but what are some of the barriers women are up against when pursuing careers in research?
Depending on the context we’re talking about, women often have fewer opportunities and fewer advantages than men. That is just a fact. For example, in many places, from a very young age, education is prioritized for boys over girls. By the time you get to university and graduate school, you’re dealing with lower numbers of women matriculating to begin with and the women who have enrolled have likely had fewer opportunities. This then has a ripple effect as they enter the professional space.
That is something we want to work on through EQUAL – we want to provide women with opportunities through trainings and practice not only in doing research but also in proposal development, writing, and public speaking – creating positive opportunities for growth that benefit not only the researcher herself but also the research overall.
5. What can more established researchers – both male and female – do to help encourage more young women interested in pursuing a career in research?
There are three things I will highlight here. First, we need to create more opportunities for women to build their skills, to practice those skills, and to become independent researchers and scientists. Observing other researchers and having hands-on experience with support helped me to understand my skills and my potential.
Second, we need to think more creatively about how we find and recruit people for our research teams. So often, hiring practices over anchor on graduate degrees and that results in more male-dominated environments depending on where you are working. I’d like to see us think more about potential than degrees – looking for people that may exemplify research- or science-mindedness even if they don’t have formal training. We also know many health researchers in the Global South have medical degrees, which tends to be dominated by men. At the same time, we know women make up the majority of nurses and midwives. These nurses and midwives have a lot to contribute to our work in better understanding and better caring for moms and babies and so we are committed to cultivating their expertise and skills as part of our research teams.
Lastly, I think established researchers from the Global North, myself included, need to reflect on what our role is and have a plan for what our role should and should not be down the line. The role of a Global North researcher doing work in the Global South is and must be changing. I am consciously trying to reflect on how to exercise my skills and capacity in a way that helps break the negative power dynamics that have traditionally perpetuated the field of global health.
6. As the co-Research Director for EQUAL, what advice do you have for young women interested in a career in science and research?
Find good people and find good mentors. Being able to find your passion and then people working in those fields that can give you direction and advice is critical. I was blessed to be surrounded by supportive female researchers early in my career and not everyone is that lucky. If you don’t have people like that in your life, do due diligence and be proactive to find someone –male or female – that will be dedicated to your growth. As a co-Research Director for EQUAL, that is something I want to help facilitate – making connections for female researchers to people with more experience to help foster their growth. It is something we are actively thinking about because we know creating an authentic and meaningful relationship between mentor and mentee takes time.
Dr. Kozuki’s biography:
Dr. Kozuki MSPH, PhD (co-Research Director for EQUAL) is the Research and Innovation Lead for Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, and Neonatal Health at the International Rescue Committee. She oversees a team with skills in behavioral science, costing, design, evidence synthesis, research, and strategy to develop, test, and deliver women-centered, life-saving interventions to most vulnerable populations in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. An epidemiologist by training, her research has focused on maternal and newborn health, as well as childhood malnutrition, and she has led research in contexts including Nepal, Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan. She completed her MSPH, PhD, and post-doctoral training at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and has a BA from Yale University. She is also an Associate Faculty member in the Department of International Health at JHSPH and an affiliate of Johns Hopkins University Center for Humanitarian Health. Learn more about Naoko’s work here and follow her on Twitter via @nkozuki